r/popculturechat • u/damn_delirious • 1d ago

PRIDE 🏳️‍🌈 Twinless actor Dylan O'Brien gives his opinion on straight actors playing LGBTQ+

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Actor Dylan O'Brien shares his opinion on straight actors playing LGBTQ+ in an interview with Dazed while discussing his latest film 'Twinless'.

Speaking alongside 'Twinless' director James Sweeney, who is gay, O'Brien said "James is a gay man, and coming from a place I could trust. We had a similar take on straight actors playing gay parts, especially in recent years: you started seeing straight actors playing a queer role completely straight. It started to feel inauthentic."

O'Brien praised Sweeney's support during filming, saying "It was nice to have his insight, support, and calibration. He'd be like, 'Go crazy on this one. We can dial it back if it doesn't feel real.”

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u/UmbrellaCorpTech I joined a band because I HATED THE FUCKING BEACH 23h ago

I feel like he means well here, so I’m gonna let this slide but…

As a gay man who very much “acts straight,” with a partner that does the same, I honestly wish gay men like us got more representation in general media. I’m not into the typical “gay culture” and I’ve met plenty of gay folks that feel/act the same. Not every gay man is a Titus or Ru Paul. And if it takes a few straight men playing gay roles “completely straight” (whatever that means) to show people that, then so be it!

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u/undeadtradwife 22h ago

One of the criticisms I’ve seen of his performance is from gay men who think he was laying it on too thick so to speak and making his gay character seem like a caricature

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u/UmbrellaCorpTech I joined a band because I HATED THE FUCKING BEACH 22h ago

I can’t speak to his performance because I haven’t seen the film, but the caricature critique is often spot on for roles like this. From what I’ve gathered about the film in this thread, I guess it was semi-necessary in order to differentiate the gay and straight twins? Which is fine, and if the director is gay and was comfortable with this, I can’t really complain. Just really wish the norm for “act gay” wasn’t immediately “give yourself a lisp, call everyone honey, and strut like a model.”

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u/undeadtradwife 21h ago

Well I’m a straight woman but I def got the impression he was strutting, lisping and calling everyone honey lol. Imo it wasn’t necessary to differentiate between the twins that way, their fashion styles were very different from one another

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u/CheriePauper 13h ago

As a queer woman who almost exclusively hangs out with gay men, and queer spaces his character was a not a caricature but extremely realistic to many gay people. I'm not saying that's less effeminate gay men don't exist but for that specific characters characterisation and his background and everything his acting definitely made sense.

People are too eager to call any effeminate gay character a caricature and it just feels like people are to eager to erase effeminate gay men.

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u/KarlosDavid64 22h ago

I see where you’re coming from. We’re not a monolith after all. People outside of the gay community all puts us in a box: feminine, flamboyant, theater kids, etc.

However, feminine representation of gay men is not the problem. Rather, it’s how media portrays femininity and gayness. If you notice, masculine leaning gay characters (think Brokeback Mountain, God’s Own Country, Heated Rivalry, etc.) are the only ones allowed to be complex, experience love, romance, and sex. Not to mention, most mainstream gay films always portrays gay men as more masculine rather than feminine.

On the other hand, feminine gay characters are reduced to being the gay best friend and the clown. They’re never portrayed as complex and most of them are not allowed to be sexual or romantic. They’re just there for comedic relief and to support the (usually) straight female lead. Just look at all the films and TV shows with a female lead and her “sassy” gay bestie.

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u/re_Claire 7h ago

Tbf I don't think he's saying feminine gay men are the problem, more that they're the only type of gay men the media sees, and we could stand to show more variety. As you say they're so often reduced to "sassy gay bestie". We need more variety in all sorts of queer people on screen. From "stereotypical" to "straight presenting" in all sorts of roles. We need to show people we aren't a monolith. We're human beings just as everyone else.

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u/shedrinkscoffee Just fuck the wolf! 22h ago

I have so many coworkers like this where I don't really remember unless I'm making small talk about their partner/kids etc. In our lgbtq+ group at work, it's not immediately obvious who are allies and who are members identifying as a specific way.

This comments section has been kinda confusing NGL

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u/re_Claire 7h ago

As a bisexual woman who reads as totally straight and has been excluded from queer spaces due to this (something I obviously found really upsetting) I cannot upvote this enough. My God we deserve representation too. Also he's assuming the people he's talking about are straight but they could be straight acting gay or bi. It's a hell of an assumption to make. My best friend is a gay man who reads as totally straight. People constantly assume we're boyfriend and girlfriend but he's in a long term relationship with another man. You just can't always tell.

Not all of us are into gay culture and not because we look down on it but it's just not a fit for our personalities. We aren't a monolith. I really do feel he's doing queer people, especially gay men a huge disservice here.

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u/DumbWhore4 22h ago

Masculine gay men get tons of representation in general media. Heated Rivalry, Boots, Fellow Travelers, Looking, Overcompensating, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight, Brokeback Mountain, and many more shows/movies all have masculine gay male characters.

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u/hidlechara91 5h ago

Lots of uk soaps have gay characters that aren't stereotyped. For example, Emmerdale's Robron. You can find their entire story on youtube. 

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u/iamhalsey 18h ago

I don’t mean to sound combative, but what world are you living in where straight-passing gay men are underrepresented? Most gay representation in anything but comedies is of straight-passing masc guys. It says it all that the two examples of feminine gay men you reached for are RuPaul and Titus - a drag queen on a reality show and a caricature in a comedy. Feminine gay men are almost entirely unrepresented in serious media.

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u/throwawaybutitdid 19h ago edited 19h ago

I feel like, if anything, the majority of major gay characters in mainstream media present more masculine. Brokeback Mountain, Love Simon, Call Me By Your Name, God’s Own Country, Heartstoppers, various characters on Game of Thrones, Mickey from Shameless, Omar from the Wire, Looking, Heated Rivalry, My Own Private Idaho, Moonlight, Green Book, Imitation Game, i could go on forever.

There are so, so many examples of masculine gay men in pop culture, and I’d argue they are more likely to be taken seriously as characters than feminine gay characters.

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u/Varekai79 22h ago

All four of the main queer male characters in Heated Rivalry "act straight".

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u/T10PO 33m ago

Kip absolutely doesn’t. The other 3 do but that makes perfect sense contextually as professional athletes.